Empty place at the table, and in the heart

Smothered baby's relatives tell court of their devastation

Updated 9:22 pm, Thursday, October 25, 2012

Robert Hayden was sentenced for killing a child he was babysitting. Hayden's sentence was imposed by Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia in the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. Oct 25, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Robert Hayden was sentenced for killing a child he was babysitting....

Matthew Cahn, left, father of the deceased child enters the courtroom to give a victim impact statement as defendant Robert Hayden watches. Hayden was sentenced for killing Cahn's child Avery Cahn while babysitting the child. Hayden's sentence was imposed by Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia in the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. Oct 25, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Matthew Cahn, left, father of the deceased child enters the...

Matthew Cahn, left, father of the deceased child enters the courtroom to give a victim impact statement as defendant Robert Hayden watches. Hayden was sentenced for killing Cahn's child Avery Cahn while babysitting the child. Hayden's sentence was imposed by Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia in the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. Oct 25, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Matthew Cahn, left, father of the deceased child enters the...

Matthew Cahn, right, father of the deceased child give a victim impact statement as defendant Robert Hayden looks away. Hayden was sentenced for killing Cahn's child Avery Cahn while babysitting the child. Hayden's sentence was imposed by Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia in the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. Oct 25, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Matthew Cahn, right, father of the deceased child give a victim...

Matthew Cahn, left, father of the deceased child, leaves the courtroom after giving a victim impact statement as defendant Robert Hayden watches. Hayden was sentenced for killing Cahn's child Avery Cahn while babysitting the child. Hayden's sentence was imposed by Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia in the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. Oct 25, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Matthew Cahn, left, father of the deceased child, leaves the...

Shannon Pazniakas, second from right, gives her victim impact statement as defendant Robert Hayden, left looks away. Hayden was sentenced for killing Cahn's child Avery Cahn while babysitting the child. Hayden's sentence was imposed by Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia in the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. Oct 25, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Shannon Pazniakas, second from right, gives her victim impact...

Shannon Pozniakas, gives her victim impact statement as before the sentencing of Robert Hayden for killing Pozniakas's child Avery Cahn while babysitting the child. Hayden's sentence was imposed by Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia in the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. Oct 25, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Shannon Pozniakas, gives her victim impact statement as before the...

Shannon Pazniakas is overcome by emotion as her mother gives her victim impact statement during Robert Hayden's sentencing for killing Pazniakas' child Avery Cahn while babysitting the child. Hayden's sentence was imposed by Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia in the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. Oct 25, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Shannon Pazniakas is overcome by emotion as her mother gives her...

Defendant Robert Hayden yawns during his sentencing procedure. Hayden was sentenced for killing infant Avery Cahn while babysitting the child. Hayden's sentence was imposed by Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia in the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. Oct 25, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

TROY — A weeping mother told the court on Thursday that she still sets a place at the dinner table for her baby son, Avery James Cahn, whose killer was sentenced to 25 years in prison for smothering the boy because he would not stop crying.

"His 6-year-old brother, Ethan, still wants me to set out a plate for his little brother at the table," Shannon Pozniakas said in a victim impact statement. "I should not have to be here today giving an impact statement about my son."

Robert Hayden, 29, pleaded guilty earlier this month in Rensselaer County Court to first-degree manslaughter in the Jan. 7 death of the boy he was baby-sitting.

The boy's father, Matthew Cahn, said he will be haunted by his son's killing forever.

"I keep thinking, what was going through his little mind during the last moments of his life while you had your hand over his mouth," Cahn said. "As a Christian, I am told I should forgive you, but I will never forgive you."

Matthew Cahn, who wore an Albany County Jail jumpsuit and was handcuffed, glared at Hayden as a court security officer led Cahn from the court after his statement. He is in jail for violating probation on a previous conviction.

When asked by Judge Andrew Ceresia if he had anything to say, Hayden abruptly said "No."

"The thing about this that is disturbing to me is that right up to this moment you have never showed any remorse whatsoever for your actions," Ceresia said before sentencing Hayden to prison and five years of post-release supervision.

During his guilty plea on Oct. 1, Hayden said he intentionally held his hand over the boy's mouth because the child would not stop crying.

"I suffocated Avery with my hand," Hayden told Ceresia at the time.

"Did you intentionally place your hand over his mouth?" the judge asked.

"Yes," Hayden answered.

"Were you intending to cause serious injury to him?" Ceresia asked.

"Yes," Hayden said.

Initially, Hayden told police he performed CPR on the toddler for two hours in the mother's Griswold Heights apartment after Avery stopped breathing.

After realizing the child was dead, Hayden told police, he grabbed his grandmother's rosary beads, traded them for a bag of marijuana and got high, leaving Pozniakas to discover her dead son in a playpen when she returned from work.

Hayden and Pozniakas knew each other from the neighborhood and he sometimes baby-sat for her. Hayden was on probation at the time of the crime and is classified as a Level 1 sex offender for a misdemeanor abuse crime involving an 11-year-old girl in 2010, police have said.

"I still have his car seat in my garage," said the baby's grandmother, who did not want to be identified. "I haven't been able to part with that yet. I keep some of his artwork in my car, and I keep a pair of his little socks in my desk drawer. I miss him every day."